Whitewater Rivers have a rating classification (Class I-VI) to rate the difficulty of rivers. Guide Turbo will still use that classification here at Guide Turbo, but that classification system is only one dimensional. To review Fly fishing rivers, we need to add a few more dimensions to a rating system.

Whenever Dan and I would discuss rivers to float we always ended up asking each other the same questions about the reconnaissance for that river. We decided to use those questions as a rating system.

Fishability

This question is probably the most important question we want to be answered. We don’t know this until we have floated a river a few times. And our rating isn’t going to be based on size or numbers. It’s just going to be how was the fishing. I’ll give more specifics in the review of each river.

Possible Vehicle Theft

I don’t know many times that I’ve walked away from my truck and not had the thought that my truck is going to get broken into. It’s going to happen sometime. I try to minimize anything that might make my truck appealing to someone to break my window. I also don’t want to give the SOBs any reward for being a thief.

Drunk Hillbilly Warnings

I hate to bring up a Deliverance reference. In fact, I hate those T-shirts (ex. Paddle Faster I hear Banjo Music). I rather enjoy banjo music. And I find most of the people living on the river or in the hollers to be pretty good people. But you do occasionally come across that one hillbilly who has been drinking the clear stuff all day and listening to the am radio. He might not be too thrilled to see you. Thus, this rating.

The sketchiness of Put-in and take-out

The quality of a put-in or take-out is a subjective rating. I mean some of the places I drop my raft into the river give me pause. A guy with a bass boat would get to that same put-in and think I was crazy. Our rating system is going to be focused on rafts and drift boats. This will be concentrating on how likely that you are either going to have to call a tow truck, spend some time at the auto repair shop, or you’ll be doing boat repair in the near future.

Hey, our scale is liquid so if you think we need to add to our rating system then give us your idea. We will certainly entertain your idea.

Welcome to Guide Turbo! Well, the new Guide Turbo. What happened to the old Guide Turbo? For those of you who don’t know, the old Guide Turbo was a platform that made it easier for Guides to manage their company. It included a mobile application, and you could manage reservations and your business all through one platform. Yea it died! Ha, we closed it down. It is expensive to keep a platform running, and the guides weren’t using the platform as we intended. I don’t blame them. We didn’t see this generation of guides utilizing the platform as expected, so we had to cut our investment. I still retained the Trademark so why not use it.

So, what’s this? It is just a Blog. I’ll cover everything from Hunting and fishing to being a daddy and husband (which consumes most of my free time). I’m sure I’m going to talk about insider talk from what it was like to be a fly fishing guide and a whitewater guide for more than 15 years.

So, to answer your question about the Old Guide Turbo. Well, that would be me. I got the nickname “Turbo” originally from a teacher in high school. It resurfaced while I was guiding on the Ocoee River. When my guests use to ask me how I got the name I use to have the reply- “I don’t know. My girlfriend gave it to me.” That joke was usually met with an awkward pause and then laughter. My last name is Turbyville. Surely you can figure it out from there.